


The Man on the Shore

by arsistiel



Series: Flufftober [15]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Alternate Universe - Fans & Fandom, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Alternate Universe - Singers, Attempt at Humor, Best Friends, Celebrity AU, Celebrity!Alec, Domestic Fluff, Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Flufftober 2020, Friends to Lovers, Guitarist Alec Lightwood, Humor, Idiots in Love, Kinda, M/M, Malec Flufftober, Musical Duo, OTP Feels, Oblivious, Oblivious Alec Lightwood, Oblivious Magnus Bane, Oblivious crush, Roommates, Sharing a Bed, Singer Magnus Bane, Sleepy Cuddles, Slow Burn, Social Media, Soft Alec Lightwood, Soft Magnus Bane, Soft Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Song Lyrics, Song Writer Alec Lightwood, Song fic, Their Fans Know whats up, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Writer Alec Lightwood, YouTuber Alec Lightwood, YouTuber Magnus Bane, but they themselves dont, celebrity!magnus, oblivious idiots, stan twitter, they have a joint singing account thing, yee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:48:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27044518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arsistiel/pseuds/arsistiel
Summary: Alec and Magnus are a well-known musical duo, 'A Cat With an Arrow'. And no, they both totally don't have feelings for each other and no, that one lyric which Alec wrote in their new song is totally not about Magnus. Their fans have it all wrong... totally.[Flufftober Day 15, Oblivious Crush]
Relationships: Magnus Bane & Alec Lightwood, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Flufftober [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945453
Comments: 11
Kudos: 135





	The Man on the Shore

“Is coming out hard?” Magnus reads the question out loud, failing at keeping a track of it as it gets lost in the sea of comments that keep popping up on his Live. 6k people are currently watching 

There is something about the question that makes his eyes go soft and his heart melt, it feels so… innocent.

“Coming out… can be hard,” Magnus says slowly. “It can be scary... But it’s relieving, especially if you have the right people by your side,” he smiles into the camera, “But if you don’t, know that you're not alone. There is a whole community with you. People to support you.” he leans back and eat a spoonful of his yogurt. “And luckily, Alexander and I have you lovely human beings.”

‘A Cat With an Arrow’, also known as the most unproblematic musical duo (or ‘Malec’ by fans), dropped their music video yesterday after 6 months of hiatus. Which also happened to be a coming out video. 

In the past three years, Alec and Magnus had gained a lot of followers, ever since their first ever video of Youtube, a cover of Take Me to Church by Hozier went viral. It was a short 2 minute video, filmed in Alec’s room while he played the guitar and Magnus sang. Magnus still remembered how they had posted it online jokingly but then it reached up to 2 Million views in just a month and their subscriber count hit 3,500 in the first few weeks. It was amazing. 

Covers gradually progressed to original songs, the one’s Alec had written here and there. And now, here Magnus and Alec were, with a following of over 9 Million and the loveliest and the most chaotic fanbase ever. 

It took them awhile to talk about the coming out video. It wasn’t a big decision really, they had never actually tried to hide their sexualities, but they had never really come up front or been open about the topic in public too. 

Then they saw more and more people questioning them. They saw youth who followed their music and were inspired by it. Closted teens. Hell, their music was 'stanned' the most in the ‘gay side of Tiktok’.

So, they decided to come out on coming out day itself, to a song Alec’s-closeted-self had written a while long back, after making a few adjustments to it.

_ While everyone sees in Black and White, _

_ Why do I see color? _

_ While everyone runs to the house, _

_ Why do I drift further? _

It was mostly an upbeat song, though. The video shoot happened on a beach. They went all out for this one. There was a rainbow there, that day, which just made the video a hundred times better. 

The video consisted of several clips of Magnus and Alec chilling at the beach, a few of Magnus dramatically checking out a guy’s ass while Alec rolled his eyes but proceeded to do so himself. One, of a girl winking at Alec to which Alec just gave her an awkward thumbs up while partway lip syncing ‘I’m gay’ as Magnus besides him, winked back at the girl. There were a few scenes of them drinking coconuts under the rainbow, while they laid on a beach blanket with “Does the gender matter?” written above them on the sand with a sandcastle made. The sandcastle was topped with a Pride flag in the middle, the Bi pride flag leaned towards Magnus’ side , and the blue-and-green striped Gay pride flag leaned towards Alec’s side. 

The video had reached over 50,000 views in one night, it was a hit. The fandom, although not very surprised, were going crazy all over social media. There was a little criticism and a little hate, mostly fangirls crying over the love of their life, Alec Lightwood, turning out to be gay, but it was all buried down with the love and support. 

Which was why Magnus had randomly gone live right now from the official ‘A Cat With an Arrow’ instagram account, because he was bored and wanted to thank his fans.

**@ariasings** Who is the ‘man on the shore’?

“Who is the man on the shore….” Magnus reads as he sees the comment and it is quickly followed by another.

**@malecslightho3** Who tf is the ‘man on the shore’ and why is it Magnus?

_ There’s a man on the shore that pulls me close, _

_ He sees color as I do, _

_ The house is happy and laughing in pairs, _

_ As I sit here trying to look elsewhere. _

Warmth pools in Magnus’ stomach, when he reads the comment, for a reason Magnus can’t figure out. Magnus himself doesn’t know what that line means, or who the man was. He, the said man on the shore, is only mentioned once in the whole song and never again. Alec never told Magnus, only saying “I don’t know, It’s random.” with hesitance when Magnus had pushed. Magnus assumed an old crush, but then again, Magnus can’t remember the last time Alec had crushed on someone and hadn’t told his best friend about it. Well, in the 4 years he has known Alec, Alec hasn’t really ever ‘crushed’ or been serious about someone. Not serious enough to write a song about them, anyways.

Magnus realises that he has a small smile on his face when his eyes fall on the comment by the ‘maleclightho3’ person. He clears his throat and leans back. “Well, Alexander wrote the song, gotta ask him about it,” he says quickly before moving to another question.

“A fun fact about the video?” Magnus reads and thinks for a while. “Oh right, Alec got dumped with a bucket of sand on his head right after the last scene for revenge because he’s an asshole.”

The video had ended with a scene where Alec grabbed Magnus by his waist from behind and pulled him down into the waves while Magnus, taken by surprise, yelped loudly. Then came back up gasping for air while Alec laughed. It was unscripted and candid. Originally, they were supposed to just stand in the waves and look up at the rainbow when Alec decided to do that. Izzy bullied them into keeping the Alec-dumping-Magnus clip in.

**@aleclightwoood** Fun fact #2: Magnus cried after I dipped him in the water.

Magnus notices the comment, which is yet again getting lost above lots of ‘ _ Alec’s watching the live too!!!! _ ’. “It wasn’t a dip, you threw me in with yourself. And I did not, you’re just an Asshole,” he says with an eyebrow raise. 

**@aleclightwoood** You went live without me, so who's the real asshole here?

**@lightwoodmaryse** Um… we kind of all saw you, son.

Ignoring Alec, Magnus gasps dramatically and places a hand on his chest. “Maryse, you wound me.”

**@isabellelightwoodswhore** wHere is Alec doe?

Magnus chuckles at the username. “Well, Isabelle’s… fan, Alec’s gone to the grocery store.” He replies, going out of the frame and then coming back in with a disappointed look on his face and an empty yogurt cup in his hand. “Alexander, if you’re still watching this and if you’re still at the mart, get me some yogurt please.” he says, keeping the cup back down and looking into the camera for more questions.

“You should’ve told me earlier,” comes Alec’s voice before the sound of the door closing.

“Oh, here’s your dear Alec,” Magnus says, looking behind him as Alec comes in, a bag full of groceries in his hand. He is wearing sweatpants and a black hoodie, the hood thrown over his head. “Alexander say hi!”

“Hey,” Alec raises his hand in which he is still holding the grocery bag and waves, resulting in a few items to fall out of it. “Shit,” Alec then says, bending down to pick them up, but the bag ends up toppling upside down and almost everyone falls out of it, “Oh fuck”

“God,” Magnus sighs and turns back to his live, “your beloved Alec Lightwood-” he does a presenting hand in Alec’s direction, giving the viewers a look that says, ‘This is the man that you all idolise?’

“Fuck off,” Alec audibly mutters under his breath and he squats down on his heels to pick the groceries up and stuff them back in the bag.

“Anyways, we're going to shoot the official Q&A video tomorrow, as I’ve already told you guys. So tweet your questions and tag me.”

“-Magnus, I can use some help her- Ouch,” Alec cuts himself off as he bumps his head against the dinner table while standing up.

Magnus closes his eyes and shakes his head while stifling in a laugh. “I’m going to go help him,” he says, before ending the live with a last wave of his hand.

“I don’t think you can survive without me,” Magnus stands up from where he was doing the live on the couch and walks towards Alec to help him pick up the groceries. 

Alec wonders that maybe that is true. 

They had met 4 years ago through a flyer that had plainly said “In search for a roommate” with minimal terms and conditions that had attracted Alec. Besides, Alec was desperate to get out of his old apartment because his roommate, Raj, was a huge homophobic asshole and Alec just wanted to get out of there. Magnus provided affordable rent and… he was sweet and handsome.

They had bonded pretty easily when they first met. There was something about Magnus, he was so easy to talk to. Alec had no doubt in his mind when he decided to move in, and he can’t imagine living without him, well maybe he can, but it’ll be too boring and empty without his best friend.

“I’m hungry, where are the Ramen?” Magnus asks, searching through the now picked up bag on the counter. 

He’s wearing one of Alec’s sweatpants, Alec notices, but doesn’t comment on it. Magnus likes stealing his clothes. Alec is sure that half of his wardrobe is in Magnus’ closet. Sometimes, his hoodies and tees just disappear after going in for a wash and reappear again a few days (or weeks) later. It makes Alec smile.

“Might be at the bottom,” Alec replies, coming to search the bag himself. He can’t find the Ramen though.

“Alec,” Magnus crosses his arms above his chest, “you went for Ramen in the first place… and you forgot the Ramen itself?”

Alec sighs. “It must’ve slipped out of my mind.”

“How does-” Magnus shakes his head. “Well, there goes dinner.” he says, “You’re cooking something now, we just had takeout yesterday”

“Okay fine,” Alec taps his fingers against the counter, trying to gather up the energy and deciding what to make. 

Magnus closes his eyes and tiredly leans forward to place his head against Alec’s shoulder. “You're a dumbass.”

“I know,” Alec says, placing a hand on Magnus’ bicep. His skin tingles when he makes contact with it. It’s weird how he always has butterflies in his chest whenever he shares gentle touches with Magnus like these. 4 years and that is one of the most prominent things about their relationship. “Go on, clean off your face and I’ll start cooking something”

Magnus’ nods against Alec’s shoulder, taking a deep breath in to inhale Alec’s scent. He smells of faint sandalwood, from the body wash they both use, and sweat. When Magnus leans back away, he finds Alec smiling down at him.

Afterwards, as Alec stuffs cheese on 4 slices of bread and places the sandwich on the griller, he thinks about the way Magnus likes to peek over his shoulder and watch him work. Magnus usually places his chin down, his hair tickling Alec’s cheek. And sometimes, Magnus’ chin replaces his lips. 

Weirdly, it never feels weird. It’s usually just a brush of lips against Alec’s shoulder before Magnus pulls away. Just a few seconds of warmth. A few seconds of a burning in Alec’s chest and little jumps in his stomach.

Alec is expecting Magnus to do that right now, he has taken off his hoodie and is just standing in his tank top. But instead, Magnus comes out vigorously rubbing his heavily watering eye, and asking Alec to check if he has a hair stuck in there.

“Stay still and look up,” Alec tells him as he observes his red eye, there’s a thin eyelash stuck at the bottom. He gently starts to bring the tip of his index finger near it. “Magnus, stop flickering your eyes,”

“I’m trying,” Magnus says, wiping off the water that drips off his eye. 

When Alec comes in closer, his chest almost touches Magnus’, and blows in Magnus’ eye. Magnus’ breath hitches till the point he is holding it in. 

Their faces are so close.

They have been in situations like these before, and every time Magnus swears he feels his brain rewiring.  _ When did he get here? _ He never understands. He’s usually confident and carefree. But with Alec… it’s different.

Alec carefully grabs the eyelash between his thumb and index finger and gently picks it out of Magnus’ eye. The cloth in Magnus’ hand instantly flies to his eye to stop the water. 

“There.” Alec says, wiping his hand on his tank top.

“Thanks,” Magnus mutters. His body feels like it’s craving for Alec to be close to him again, but instead, he focuses on what is cooking behind Alec. “What are you making?”

“Grilled cheese,” Alec shrugs.

“Real creative”

Alec closes his eyes and leans his head back against the headboard of his bed, unable to think of anything to write. Pencil in his fingers almost rolling off his hand. 

Alec has 3 diaries, One with an orange cover for random song ideas and bullshit melodies, a second with a black cover where the actual songs with real potential go, and a third one, the one in his lap at the moment, open to a fresh new page.

This diary has a leather brown cover and is filled with little poems, phrases, quotes, and other lines that he can use in songs. There are a few full blown songs written here too, but those are just for him.

Actually, this whole diary is just for him. It’s a personal safekeep, of some sort. Alec’s heart is poured out in it. He never lets anyone read it, not even Magnus, too embarrassed because almost everything in here is cheesy-romantic-love crap that comes to his head at night. 

Alec usually takes inspiration from real life, it’s in-built in him. He likes to value things that are dear to him and to appreciate small things that make him smile- like the crunch of the dried autumn leaves when Magnus and him go to the park for random talks and walks. Gentle breezes in the spring that caresses his face and makes his hair all messy, which Magnus fixes by running a hand through them. Snowflakes that fall in the winter that sometimes look like cotton when they find a sitting place on Magnus’ hair. Ice creams in the summer that sometimes melt under the sun and makes Magnus pout.

So when Alec writes in his diary, he doesn’t realises where these soft words come from. In this diary, they are usually about a faceless man, usually something romantic, usually something domestic, usually something… familiar. 

Usually, about Magnus.

But he disregards it, thinking it is because Magnus and he spent a lot of their time together. Which they do, indeed, so it’s a valid and understandable reason. Also, it’s just his brain cooking up romantic love stories for his single soul which hasn’t been in a relationship for ages. God, he should _ try _ to start dating again.

He opens his eyes and grips his pencil again…

_ Watered down eyes amused,  _

_ His lips on my shoulder, _

_ A shock of static electricity, _

_ A gravity pulling us closer _

This is turning into a song, he knows as he keeps on filling the page yet again. But a knock at the door pulls him out of his focus on the sheet of paper and his thoughts.

Magnus is standing there, a blanket wrapped around him. He’s wearing a silk blue robe and his fuzzy PJs. “I… spilled water on my mattresses…”

Alec looks at him and sighs. This isn’t the first time that has happened. He shifts in a corner of the bed and pats the space besides him. “Come on.” 

Every once in two months Magnus either forgets to change his sheets, spills water or food on his mattresses, or one of them it’s having a great or long day, so they end up in each other’s rooms.

Magnus gives him a smile and hops on his bed. “Thanks,” he says, sitting up against the headboard. Then trying to peek in Alec’s diary when Alec goes back to writing. 

“Don’t,” says Alec as he shifts further from Magnus, hiding the view of his writing from the other man.

“Well okay,” Magnus replies. He covers his legs with the blanket before pulling his phone out. He hasn’t checked the comments under their video, or twitter, since the morning. 

He opens up Youtube first, scrolling through the comments. They are mostly supportive and appreciative

**@mxmixgobrrr** I support them with all I have and I love them bUT HOW ARE YALL SURPRISED ABOUT THEM BEING QUEER??? HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THEIR PAST VIDEOS??? HAVE Y’ALL SEEN ALEC???

**@sapphicsforthewin @mxmixgobrrr** Bro ikr, like didn't you all see the vid where they bumped with Eugene from the Try Guys? Alec’s “I-um-ugh, haha, i-um-i’ve watched your videos.. Yeah” plsss I remember going “Homosexual!”

**@mxmixgobrrr @sapphicsforthewin** “Homosexual!” asgfhdkrf indeed… and plus, no straighthetero guy can do as fleek of an eyeliner as Magnus

**View 24 more replies**

Magnus chuckles at how accurate they all are and how deeply they remember all of Alec’s ‘disaster gay moments’. “I told you they already knew,” Magnus turns his head and looks at Alec, who’s too into whatever he’s writing.

Alec jerks his head in his direction. “Huh?”

Magnus shakes his head and goes back to the comments, scrolling down. Then there are a few girls, the highlighted comments remain-

**@sillygurlll** omg, heartbroken to know that Alec’s gay, Now I gotta stop simping over him ;(

**@bethany567** **@sillygurlll** Welp, Atleast, still have Magnus to simp over.

**@Freshavacado** I had a slight crush on Alec but okay… A win for the boys, I believe.

And then come the shippers. The shippers have always been there, and Magnus (and Alec) both have expected a wave of them jumping in the air happily.

**@gaybean** lol, we been known. Now when is the ‘relationship reveal’ music video dropping?

**@glizzy2003** Okay but why does the video cuts to magnus when ‘the man on the shore’ line comes on? Listen, I am not saying something...But Im saying something..

**@aria3003** **@glizzy2003** Because Magnus is Alec’s ‘Man on the shore’, duh

**@macduncan @aria3003 @glizzy2003** Or it’s just a coincidence? You do know that two queer men can be just friends, right?

**@aria3003 @macduncan** They can be, yes. But… um… honey, have you ever seen the way Alec looks at Magnus? Or Magnus looks at Alec?

Magnus takes a deep breath and exits Youtube after that, the majority of the comments after that is mostly people asking them who the ‘Man on the shore’ is… suspecting and making theories.

He opens twitter next, his mentions are filled with questions, which he decides to screenshot for now to use in a video they’ll shoot tomorrow. After a few minutes of digging through the questions… he quietly switches to his other account. His spam account.

It’s his ‘undercover’ profile to know the insides of his fanbase and what they really think about Magnus and Alec’s videos. It’s mostly for fun (also a good ego booster) and no one really follows him there, though, _ he _ follows a lot of random fan accounts.

Today, his timeline is full of the fans tweeting screencaps and tweets about his live at few hours ago, accompanied with the music video. He quickly likes and bookmarks that one tweet that goes  _ “Here, have a video of Alec Lightwood being a baby” _ followed by a screen recording of Alec dropping his groceries and bumping his head from his Live. 

There are videos and screenshots of Magnus smiling and grinning while answering questions, zoomed in photos of Alec in his hoodie and waving at the camera. A few trying to figure out what groceries there are,  _ weird.  _ And  _ alot _ trying to figure out who the ‘man on the shore is’

**Allie || she/her @Malecskiddo**

The way my tl is full of everyone screaming about who the man on the shore is,,, WE ALL KNOW ITS MAGNUS OMG THATS NOT EVEN A QUESTION

**Arsis Izzy Lightwood’s whore @arsistiel**

@Malecskiddo Are you even on Malec stan twt if your tl isn’t full of e’rybody screaming and asking who the man on the shore is?

**Alec marry me challenge @Registiel**

Yall crying over who the man on the shore is while Im crying over how good Alec looks in that hawaian shirt in the music video. We really got fed, didn’t we? 

**Mimi @mimislove**

@Registiel Reggie, when are you not crying over Alec in a hawaian shirt?

**Alec marry me challenge @Registiel**

@mimislove -When im crying over Magnus’ tight jeans or Malec.

**Drula is spamming Magnus || Malec coming out party! @misskeshaaa**

When Magnus asks my question in the QnA video then y’all will see

**Allie || she/her @Malecskiddo**

@misskeshaaa Lemme pray for you- 

**Drula is spamming Magnus || Malec coming out party! @misskeshaaa**

@Malecskiddo pray for Alec answering who the man on the shore is instead. Coz Magnus is ought to answer my question considering how many times I’ve spammed him

Magnus reminds himself to screenshot this person’s question when a new tweet pops on his timeline. The tweet had about 221 likes and 100 retweets.

**Drimmy loves Magnus on the shore. @Drimmyyyy**

OKAY, but the way Magnus’ eyes travelled down for a minute after he read out the question and then a slow smile creeped on his face which he tried to quickly brush off. Call me a clown but he was smiling at the comment below it idc

It’s attached with a slow-mo of Magnus’ eyes flicking down below the question, to that comment that said  _ ‘who's the man at the shore and why is it Magnus?’ _ , as a small smile grows on his face which he tries to play off by clearing his throat, _ “Who is the Man on the Shore?....Well, Alexander wrote the song, gotta ask him about it”  _

Magnus notices then that he was, yet again, smiling at all these tweets that called him the man on the shore.  _ Why? _ He doesn’t go too deep asking himself that question. Just exits the twitter app.

He turns his head to look at Alec, who’s bent down in a curve, almost nose buried in his diary as he keeps on scribbling in it. His hair is flopping down on the other side of the face. A frown between his eyebrows. The bedside light makes his hazel eyes shine as he gracefully writes.  _ What a picture he makes _

Magnus opens his Instagram and quietly snaps a picture of Alec for his story. He captions it, tags Alec, posts it, and locks his phone, placing it down on the nightstand. He sinks in the bed, pulling the covers up to his shoulders.

Alec’s phone tings, snapping him out of his writing-world.

**@banesmagic mentioned you in their story.**

Alec glances at Magnus who is now lying down turned to his side so he could face Alec and a hand under his head to pillow it. Magnus gives him a shrug.

Alec opens his phone and looks at the story; it’s him, lost in his pencil and diary. The caption reads ‘ _ New song coming up soon?’ _ accompanied with three thinking emojis. Alec smiles for a moment as he stares at the photo

When he looks back at Magnus, Magnus already has his eyes closed, his breathing is even and his body is relaxed. He looks so at peace, Alec thinks. It spreads a certain kind of warmth in his chest. He can’t help but reach out to tuck Magnus’ flopped down hair behind his ear with a gentle caress.

Alec picks up his pencil again, turns to a new page, and writes in the middle of it…

_ “The air stills when he sleeps. There’s a quiet peace.” _

He closes the diary and adjusts his pillows, he slides it underneath them. 

Alec sleeps that night reminding himself that his words are just inspired by the things, the people around him. It’s nothing else. Just an inspiration.

He tries not to let his brain wander farther away.


End file.
